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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1984)
Monday, November 19,1984AThe Battalion/Page 3 ^1 Communication used in all jobs By DEEENA ELLIOTT Reporter All students in every field of tudy, from engineering to forestry, eed to be able to express them- iclves well with words, verbal and vritten, says Sunshine Overkamp, :ommunications director of United Way. Overkamp said all students need to acquire communication skills be- ause students will be selling them- ,elves to employers and customers. “Everyone is a communicator,” ihe said. Overkamp spoke Friday on the mportance of communication at the monthly meeting of Brazos Valley’s hapterofthe International Associa- ion of Business Communicators, ABC. Overkamp presented strategies lends ) say, itions table find ■ased rasti- ot of Jut a : you lome for utilizing communication effecti vely in profit and non-profit organi zations and businesses. She said the strategies are applicable no matter what the area of communication or what type of group or organization is represented. Overkamp said businesses need to do marketing research and follow up on what they discover. A business cannot afford to not know what cus tomers think of the business — what causes them to buy a product. Expense and time consumption can be avoided, she said, through in formal research involving talking to people and asking the right ques tions to get an idea of the type of constituency the business serves. Generically defining the business beyond terms such as books, makeup or fund raising gives the business a definite purpose, she said. For example, publishers have de cided they are not restricted to books, but have defined themselves as being in information, so they also publish video cassettes and other forms of relaying information. United Way, she said, has decided it is no longer just a fund raising or ganization. By redefining its pur pose, United Way has decided it “in creases the organized capacity of people to care for one another,” Overkamp said, and “phenomenal changes will occur in the next 10 years.” Deciding on a “unique strategic position,” what makes the business different from other businesses with the same general purpose, is essen tial in deciding how to market a product and how to appeal to a par ticular type of customer, she said. Analyzing the price of a service or product in terms of more than just money is also necessary, Overkamp said. A business needs to ask what the customer had to give up. A civil service, in advertising, needs to real ize the pride a person may swallow in coming to that service for help, she said. Overkamp said competency and professionalism of an organization is communicated in everything con nected with that organization, from answering the telephone to the ap pearance of the waiting room to the appeal of the advertising. Everyone in the organization is a communicator, she said, and the person hired as a communicator for an organization is responsible for in forming everyone of that fact. Mario — living with MD at 10 years old By ANN BRIMBERRY Reporter Mario Estrada is a healthy little boy even though he is unable to bal- nce himself or walk a straight line, jt takes him a long time to sit down, nd he cannot climb stairs because he is unable to lift his legs. Mario is 10 years old and has Mus- ular Dystrophy. “We found out two years ago and Ht never really thought he would ave anything like that because here was no history in either family f this disease,” Espiridion Estrada, Mario’s father, said. Mario’s Muscular Dystrophy is lassified as sporadic. “The doctors told us it was hered- tary and was just something that pens,” Espiridion said. “He night have had it when he was born, iut since the disease progresses so ilowly, there is no way of knowing vhen he contracted it.” Mario’s muscles are deteriorating ittleby little; however, the condition iid not effect him right away. “Over the past few years he has lost a little mobility,” Espiridion said. He still walks, but doesn’t move iround as much.” Mario’s mother, Minerva, said he vas eight years old when the doctors liscovered his condition. “The school nurse found that Mario had problems with his motor abilities; but it took the doctors a ong time to find out what was wrong with him,” she said. “The doctors in Bryan were trying to tell us there was nothing wrong with him, so we took him to Temple where specialists took a graph of a muscle tissue to determine if he did have Muscular Dystrophy.” Muscular Dystrophy is divided into 40 different types. Mario’s was diagnosed as being hereditary and affecting only male children. Mario’s sister, Irene, could be a carrier, but she would never be effected. How ever, if she had a male child, it is pos sible he could have Muscular Dystro- phy. “For a male, this is the worst one for him to have,” Espiridion said. “Our first reaction was shock. I couldn’t believe it. I never imagined something like that was wrong with him. I always thought it wasjust him, that he didn’t want to do things and was just being hard-headed about learning.” The Estrada family said they have more or less accepted the situation and are trying to handle it the best way they can; however, many more difficult situations and responsibili ties lie ahead of them. “T he doctors told us things to ex pect as Mario looses more and more control of his muscles,” Minerva said. “Right now he walks on his toes a lot because the muscles in his calves are growing shorter. “His calves are huge, in fact, too big for a normal little boy, so it is just fat building up and has no flexibility to move up and down. He will even tually loose the use of his legs and from there it works up.” Espiridion said the worst part is knowing there is no cure. “There is no medication given at all, just therapy,” he said. “We do an exercise stretching his foot muscles to try to get more flexibility so he can walk flat-footed, but that will only help for so long,” he said. Mario is given therapy in school. “There is no problem with what he does now,” Minerva said. “He goes to school, rides the bus, goes to school the regular class day and still walks around, but there are certain things he just can’t do.” Minerva said the children attend ing school with Mario ridicule him because of the way he walks and this bothers him. “I guess you expect that from kids,” she said. He has always been in special edu cation classes so the teachers spend more time with him, Espiridion said. “The teachers always treated him different because he wasn’t able to do a lot of things the other kids could do,” he said. “With the teacher he has now, Mario has progressed a lot. We have noticed a big change in the past three months. He is read ing, writing and doing subtraction problems, and they told us he would never be able to do any of that.” However, the Estrada’s have not noticed much improvement in Mar io’s motor abilities. “Sometimes when he is walking he ALL-AMERICA the tine ast- an- was ;nt, son ing Bye-bye MCI. Call-America costs less! MCI long distance customers got a surprise October 15--a big rate increase. Now most MCI calls are only pennies cheaper than regular AT&T long distance. As MCI gets bigger, the savings keep getting smaller. Call-America is much cheaper than MCI on every long distance call. And up to 50% cheaper than regular AT&T long distance rates. But Call-America doesn’t sound cheaper. No static. No busy signals. Your long distance calls are clear as a bell. With no waiting for an open line to save money. Ask any Call-America customer. Compare. You’ll say bye-bye to MCI too. callAmerica 106 E. 26th /Bryan, TX 779-1707 will just fall down,” Espiridion said. “Little by little you can just tell his muscles are getting weaker. The doctors told us we could put him in braces, but Mario refuses.” When Mario sees a child in a wheelchair, he does not want to get near them, Espiridion said. “He subconsciously knows that eventually he will end up in one,” he said. “He likes to be outside playing tag and the one thing that really scares me a lot is how he will react when he has to be put in a wheelch air.” So far the doctor is amazed at Mario because usually when a child with Muscular Dystrophy reaches the age of 10 years, he is unable to walk, but Mario is still getting around, Minerva said. “There are some questions I can not answer,” Espiridion said. “The other day Mario and I were watch ing the Dallas Cowboys on T.V. and Mario said, ‘Daddy, when my legs get well can I play football?’ That makes me feel bad. It’s hard when he asks questions like that.” Minerva said thinking about the future really scares her, so she just takes it day by day. “We lived through a nightmare the first month. I kept hoping I would wake up. But now we just hope for the best and maybe some thing will happen and things will get better. Until then, we have a lot of faith and hope and make the best of the situation.” P.E. administrator dies, funeral held University News Service Funeral services were held Sunday for Emil Mamaliga, assis tant head of the Texas A&M De partment of Health and Physical Education, who died Thursday at his home in College Station fol lowing a lengthy illness. Mamaliga, 63, had been asso ciated with A&M for 37 years as a coach, instructor and administra tor. An All-American swimmer at Ohio State, he came to A&M in 1947 as a swimming and diving coach and instructor in educa tion. He worked closely with the Athletic Department as strength and conditioning coach and most recently in the area of injury re habilitation. Mamaliga became nationally known as an expert in weight training and in 1958 authored the book “Body Development Through Weight Training” which became a popular guide for coaches organizing a condi tioning program for their ath letes. In addition to his involve ment with the A&M Athletic Department, Mamagila was in-_ strumental in updating the cur riculum in the Health and Physi cal Education Department to meet the demands of the rapid enrollment increase during the 1970s when A&M ranked first in the nation in overall enrollment growth. Mamagila worked with hun dreds of athletes during his ca reer at A&M, including shot put ter Randy Matson, 1968 Olympic gold medalist and now executive director of the A&M Association of Former Students. “Mammy was one of the first people to show me around the campus when I arrived at A&M as a young recruit, and I began to feel very close to him even then,” Matson said. “He was very instru mental in the development of my athletic career and countless oth ers as well. He was a great motiva tor and a real asset to all Aggies.” A memorial scholarship fund has been established by the Asso ciation of Former Students in Ma- magila’s name. Service calls to mind Jonestown tragedy United Press International WASHINGTON — The daugh ter of the late Rep. Leo Ryan, slain by the People’s Temple cult six years ago, led a memorial service com memorating the tragedy Sunday say ing, “We cannot afford to forget what happened in Jonestown. “We are here to make sure some thing like this never happens again,” Patricia Ryan told about 25 people at the service outside the Capitol. “And we are also here because it can.” The deaths of more than 900 resi dents of the People’s Temple colony run by the Rev. Jim Jones occurred on Nov. 19, 1978, at the jungle set tlement of Jonestown, Guyana. The mass suicides followed the fa tal shooting by Jones’ followers of Ryan, a congressman from San Francisco and four other Americans who had inspected conditions at the sect’s jungle camp, originally located in San Francisco. Jones ordered his followers to drink deadly poison and then killed himself as well. “Today people are involved more than ever with cults,” Ryan said. “These groups falsely promise easy answers to the complex problems of life.” Ryan said her father knew , the people of Jonestown were “brain- wasned,” and were only pretending to be happy. Rep. Ryan was murdered at the Port Kaituma Airport near Jonestown as he and his group pre-~ pared to return home. Larry Layton was accused of con spiracy to murder a congressman, aiding in the murder of a congress man, conspiracy to murder an inter nationally protected person and aid ing in the attempted murder of an internationally protected person. “All You Ever Wanted To Know About A&M ’ But Were Afraid to Ask.” Come hear John Adams speak & answer questions on The History of Texas A&M sponsored by Texas A&M Traditions Council Tuesday Nov. 20, 11:30-12:30 Rudder Tower /STUDENT GOVERNMENT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY